A finalist in the International Handel Singing Competition in 2020, Ruairi Bowen is much in demand as an interpreter of Baroque repertoire in the UK and abroad, collaborating with some of the leading conductors in the field including Emmanuelle Haïm, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Stephen Layton. An experienced Evangelist of J.S. Bach’s Passions, he made his debuts at Bachfest Leipzig and Snape Maltings with Solomon’s Knot, with whom he most recently sang Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium at London’s Wigmore Hall. Other engagements have included Bach's B Minor Mass with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the St John Passion with both the Adelaide & Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as for the annual Good Friday performance with Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Stephen Layton.
Equally at home with larger-scale symphonic works, he sang in the world premiere & recording of Stanford's Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and Adrian Partington, Dvorak Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival, Mendelssohn's Elijah in Worcester Cathedral, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Ben Palmer/Covent Garden Sinfonia and Vaughan Williams’ A Cotswold Romance with the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2023 he sang Finzi's Dies Natalis, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem for the first time, while future engagements include Lili Boulanger's Faust et Hélène with the Royal Orchestral Society and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at the Three Choirs Festival in 2024.
On the operatic stage, he makes his debut with English National Opera as Earl Tolloller in Gilbert&Sullivan's Iolanthe this autumn, while other engagements in 2023 include staged performances of Haydn's Die Schöpfung at Lithuanian National Opera, First Armed Man/Second Priest in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Maxim Emelyanychev Scottish Chamber Orchestra at Edinburgh International Festival, Jim Cocks in Offenbach's Robinson Crusoe for West Green House Opera, a revival of Purcell's The Indian Queen with Le Concert d’Astrée in Caen, Antwerp and Luxembourg and Cyril in Gilbert&Sullivan's Princess Ida with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
A graduate of King's College, Cambridge, Ruairi was invited to sing on Proud Songsters, an album of English Solo Song recorded with pianist Simon Lepper, featuring distinguished former members of the world-famous chapel choir. Growing up in the Welsh Marches, Ruairi developed a keen interest in exploring the integrated relationship between poetry and nature through pastoral song with recent highlights including a recital on Innocence & Experience with William Vann, performing Tippett's Cantata Boyhood's End and Finzi's A Young Man's Exhortation for the Sidwell Memorial Recital in Hampstead Parish Church.
During the live music hiatus in 2020/21, Ruairi was a Support Worker for the Children's Section of the British Refugee Council, and formed part of The Hampstead Collective, an ensemble dedicated to performing Handel Oratorio and Bach's sacred works. Where time allows, he returns to Herefordshire to play cricket for Brockhampton CC, and continues his studies with Nicky Spence & Caroline Dowdle.
Ruairi is represented by James Black Management